MALAKAND: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has said that his party wants to change the ‘system’, not just faces or parties.

He was addressing a ceremony held at the Sports Complex in Thana on Sunday in connection with a test arranged by Al-Khidmat Foundation to select candidates for its Bano Qabil (become capable) programme.

The JI chief said that 65 per cent of the country’s population consisted of youth, who had been completely ignored by the rulers. He said that education was a fundamental right of every individual, but rulers turned it into a business. Children from poor and middle-class families were being deprived of higher education owing to an increase in fees of public sector universities, he added.

He stressed the need for a unified system and curriculum, stating that the class-based education system shut the doors of progress for the poor. He said that Al-Khidmat Foundation initially set a target to launch free IT courses for one million youth, which was being increased to two million.

Thousands of students from Malakand, Upper Dir, Lower Dir and Bajaur districts participated in the test. Due to the large number of candidates and limited space, the test was conducted in two sessions.

The event was also addressed by Jamaat-i-Islami emir of North Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Inayatullah Khan and emir of Malakand Shahab Hussain.

Hafiz Naeem said that it was a need of the hour to provide opportunities to youth in the fields of IT and artificial intelligence (AI). He said that 21 per cent of men and 27 per cent of women could lose their jobs in the future owing to the development of artificial intelligence. He said that JI was working to provide training and employment opportunities to youth.

He said that 37 per cent of children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were out of school. “Education is not charity; it is a right,” he stated, adding that more than 30 million children across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan were currently out of school.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2025